Is there a local directory for nodebb plugins

I know plugins are stored in node_modules, but I want to have local plugins that are not linked to npm or whatever like local_modules this is mainly to test my plugins before I put the on my server and to have them seperated from the npm because when I do npm update it clears out my changes. I just want to check if there is already an existing feature if not I will just have to edit the plugin loader every update I guess